I started running when I hit 40 years of age. Maybe it was a mid-life, guy thing. I’m not sure. I just know that my health numbers were heading in the wrong direction. My weight was gradually increasing, my fitness and muscle mass was decreasing, and stress was hopping into the driver’s seat. I knew that as I got older, my health would only continue to decline.
So, I decided to do something about it.
I created a loseit.com account to start monitoring my calorie intake and weight. I also created a dailymile.com account to log my runs. Soon, I was logging an average of 25-35 miles a week. Eventually, I enjoyed running so much that I could put in a 10-13 mile run on a Saturday – and LOVED it! Besides this, I had wonderful bike rides on the Withlacoochie Bike Trail about every two or three weeks and rode between 30-60 miles at a time.
While I don’t have access to great bike trails here in western Kentucky, I kept the running up until the summer of 2016. There were a few things that converged during that summer that essentially brought my running to a halt. Not only did the running stop, I also noticed that I had lost the passion for the sport.
When the Murray Half Marathon was to be run two weeks ago on Saturday, April 14, I was looking forward to it as a bitter/sweet. The sweet part was that the last leg of the route was on my street. I was going to enjoy standing at the end of my driveway and applauding the runners as they went by.
The bitter part was … I was on the sidelines. I didn’t have a running bib on. I found myself wanting to be back on the race route but I had let my fitness slip.
When I woke up on that Saturday two weeks ago, I looked outside and saw the orange cones down the middle of the street. But, I also noticed that it was raining pretty hard. When I heard that the race had been called, I was bummed. Not only was I not going to be in the race, I couldn’t even cheer for the runners. It hit me just how much I missed the sport.
Then, I heard that the race had been rescheduled! The new date for the half marathon is October 20, 2018!!!
I’ve been doing some serious strength training at Mega Gym three days a week for the past 4 months. A week ago, I fired up my RunKeeper phone app and have created a 6 month training plan for the Murray Half Marathon.
So, I will be losing weight, getting fit, and will be hitting the pavement again in Murray. On October 20th, I will have a running bib on and competing in the Murray Half Marathon! I can’t wait!
Matt’s Musings 